India’s Blackberry concerns addressed: Canadian minister

New Delhi, Feb 18 (IANS) The Indian government’s security concern over Blackberry phones, manufactured by the Canada-based Research In Motion (RIM), has been “resolved as far as possible”, visiting Canadian Minister of Industry Tony Clement has said. Clement, the fourth Canadian minister to be in India in a month, started his five-day visit from Saturday, and met Communications Minister A. Raja Monday.

“There was an issue with respect to the company RIM and Blackberry. I thanked him (Raja) for his government’s assistance in resolving that to the best of our abilities,” Clement told IANS.

“My understanding is that a lot of information has been transmitted by RIM to the government of India which has helped to highlight the technical issues. And that the wording that I have seen is that it is resolved as far as possible,” he said.

BlackBerry devices had earlier come under scrutiny after Indian security agencies expressed concern that the data being transmitted through the device could not be intercepted due to the high encryption codes being used by the company.

Following last December’s Mumbai terror attacks, the wireless planning and coordination wing of the Department of Telecom (DoT), which gives approvals for all imported radio equipment and devices, raised objections to e-mails not being intercepted.

In India, BlackBerry services are offered by a number of operators including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).

The Canadian minister said RIM and DoT will continue to hold talks, but that those “will be similar to other issues that other companies face”.

Besides, they also discussed telecommunication access to rural areas and remote broadband.

While the issue of the tainted IT company Satyam did not come up in discussions, Clement said it was clearly “an isolated incident”. “Obviously it’s unfortunate. Indian authorities have acted quickly and everyone is aware that it’s important to maintain confidence in Indian companies,” he added.